When the township was originally surveyed in 1792, the surveyor, from the northern part of England, named the townships east of Toronto after towns in the historic North Riding of Yorkshire: York, Scarborough, Pickering, Whitby and Darlington.[3] The original name of "Whitby" is Danish, dating from about 867 AD when the Danes invaded Britain. It is a contraction of "Whitteby", meaning "White Village". The allusion may be to the white lighthouse on the pier at Whitby, Yorkshire, and also at Whitby, Ontario. Although settlement dates back to 1800, it was not until 1836 that a downtown business centre was established by Whitby's founder Peter Perry.
Whitby's chief asset was its fine natural harbour on Lake Ontario, from which grain from the farmland to the north was first shipped in 1833. In the 1840s, a road was built from Whitby Harbour to Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay, to bring trade and settlement through the harbour to and from the rich hinterland to the north. The Town of Whitby was chosen as the seat of government for the newly formed County of Ontario in 1852, and incorporated in 1855. The remainder of Whitby Township remained a separate municipality, although the eastern half surrounding Oshawa was incorporated as the new Township of East Whitby in 1857. In the 1870s, a railway, the "Port Whitby and Port Perry Railway", was constructed from Whitby harbour to Port Perry, and later extended to Lindsay as the "Whitby, Port Perry and Lindsay Railway".
Whitby is also the site of Trafalgar Castle School, a private girls' school founded in 1874. The building, constructed as an Elizabethan-style castle in 1859–62 as a private residence for the Sheriff of Ontario County, is a significant architectural landmark and Whitby's only provincial historic site marked with a plaque. The school celebrated its 125th anniversary in 1999.
During the Second World War, Whitby was the location of Camp X, a secret spy training facility established by Sir William Stephenson, the "Man Called Intrepid". Although the buildings have since been demolished, a monument was unveiled on the site of Camp X in 1984 by Ontario's Lieutenant GovernorJohn Black Aird. Following the war, Soviet dissenter Igor Gouzenko was taken to the facility with his wife to live in secretive protective custody after fleeing Ottawa, Ontario.[4]
Amalgamation
In 1968, the Town of Whitby and Township of Whitby amalgamated to form the current municipality. Planning for the construction of a town hall intended to centralize municipal staff working in satellite offices began in 1970 under mayor Des Newman. Construction began on the Raymond Moriyama designed building in 1975; it was opened by Mayor Jim Gartshore on January 8, 1977.[5]
Municipal boundaries were not changed during the 1974 formation of the Regional Municipality of Durham (or Durham Region as locals call it), and remain to this day. Today, Whitby is the seat of government in Durham Region.
Geography
Whitby borders Ajax to the west, Pickering to the northwest, the Township of Scugog to the north, and Oshawa to the east. Since at least the mid-1990s, the development of subdivisions to accommodate population growth has proceeded in a mostly northward direction, including development in Brooklin. To the south is Lake Ontario.
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Whitby had a population of 138,501 living in 46,460 of its 47,389 total private dwellings, a change of 7.9% from its 2016 population of 128,377.[2] With a land area of 146.69 km2 (56.64 sq mi), it had a population density of 944.2/km2 (2,445.4/sq mi) in 2021.[6]
In 2021, 19.1% of the population was under 15 years of age, and 14.8% was 65 years and over. The median age in Whitby was 40 years.[6]
The median total income of households in 2020 for Whitby was $123,000.[6]
Ethnicity
As per the 2021 census, the most common ethnic or cultural origins in Whitby are English (19.9%), Irish (17.1%), Scottish (16.7%), Canadian (13.7%), Italian (6.4%), German (6.2%), Indian (6.0%), French (5.4%), British Isles (4.8%), Chinese (4.3%), Jamaican (3.5%), Dutch (3.4%), and Polish (3.0%).[7]Indigenous people made up 1.5% of the population, mostly First Nations (0.8%) and Métis (0.7%). Ethnocultural backgrounds in the town included European (63.1%), South Asian (12.0%), Black (9.1%), Chinese (3.6%), Filipino (2.6%), West Asian (1.6%), Latin American (1.2%), Arab (1.0%), and Southeast Asian (0.5%).[6]
Panethnic groups in the Town of Whitby (2001−2021)
In 2021, 54.3% of the population identified as Christian, with Catholics (25.7%) making up the largest denomination, followed by Anglican (4.9%), United Church (4.2%), Orthodox (2.7%), and other denominations. 31.6% of the population reported no religious affiliation. Others identified as Muslim (6.7%), Hindu (5.4%), and with other religions.[6]
The Town's Council includes the Mayor, four Regional Councillors and four Town Councillors elected on the basis of one per ward. They sit on both the Town and Durham Regional Councils, as does the mayor. The members elected as of the 2022 municipal election[13] are:
Whitby is policed by the Durham Regional Police's Central West Division. There is also a detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police located in Town, mainly to patrol area provincial highways within Durham Region. Whitby Fire & Emergency Services provides firefighting services from five fire stations and ambulance/emergency medical services are provided by Durham Region EMS at the Whitby Paramedic Station (also as EMS Headquarters).
Full French-language education is provided by the Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir. There is one elementary school in Whitby, École élémentaire catholique Jean-Paul II (JK-grade 6), as well as a high school, École secondaire catholique St-Charles Garnier (grades 7-12) which services all of Durham Region.
As noted above, Whitby is home to Trafalgar Castle School,[15] an independent school for women that offers grades 4 through 12 in a university preparatory programme. Built in 1859 by the Sheriff of Ontario County, Nelson Gilbert "Iron" Reynolds, Trafalgar Castle remains a unique Canadian treasure. The school opened its doors in 1874 and was called "Ontario Ladies' College" until 1979 when the name was changed to "Trafalgar Castle School".
There are also a number of Montessori schools offering programmes for early elementary grades.
Ontario Highway 401 runs through the south end of Whitby, with interchanges at Brock Street and Thickson Road. Ontario Highway 407 was opened in Whitby in 2016. The toll highway passes between Brooklin and the urban portion of the town. Ontario Highway 412, connecting the 401 with the 407, also opened to traffic in the same year. The highway is a north–south route located just east of the Whitby-Ajax boundary and became toll-free on April 22, 2022.[16]
The southern terminus of Highway 12 is also located in Whitby. It originally extended from Highway 401 northward as part of Brock Street, but this portion was downloaded to Durham Region in 1997. The southern terminus is now located just south of Brooklin at Highway 407. Finally, Highway 7 runs east–west between Brooklin and the City of Pickering. At Brooklin, the road changes to a north–south alignment and is multiplexed with Highway 12 to the northern boundary of the Town.
Four railways pass through Whitby. The Toronto-Montreal corridor main lines of the Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway both pass east–west through the south end of town. A second CP line running from Toronto to Havelock also passes through the northern part of Whitby. Via Rail trains travel through Whitby, but the nearest station is in Oshawa. Finally, GO Transit provides frequent service via its Lakeshore East line, which (in Whitby) runs parallel to the CN tracks. A GO Station is located in Town.
Local transit services are provided by the region-wide Durham Region Transit. Prior to the Regional service, the Town provided its own service. GO Transit buses also connect Whitby with Durham Region (including Port Perry and Beaverton to the north) and areas further afield.
Whitby Harbour, an important factor in the development of the Town, is now home to a 420-berth recreational marina.[17]
Until publication ceased on September 15, 2023, Whitby was served by the Whitby This Week newspaper, part of the Metroland Media Group. Several other papers have been published in the town over the years, including the Whitby Free Press, which ran from 1971 to 1996. Other GTA media outlets serve the area, but since September 2023 there have been no newspapers serving Whitby.
In North Whitby, the Brooklin Town Crier serves approximately 8,000 residents every two weeks.[18] The Brooklin Town Crier was established in 2000 by Rhonda Mulcahy, who has since been elected Regional Councillor for Whitby.[18] The paper consists primarily of resident contributions, with occasion updates on local and regional politics from Mulcahy.[18]
The Whitby Yacht Club, which offers racing, cruising, social, and sail training programs on Whitby Harbour overlooking the Lake Ontario, was founded in 1966.[21]
Lacrosse is also a prominent sport in Whitby. The Brooklin Redmen Senior A lacrosse club is one of the most successful in Canadian sporting history, while the Junior A Whitby Warriors have been awarded the Minto Cup four times since 1984.
Whitby is also home to the Iroquois Park Sports Centre, one of the largest minor sports centres in North America. The facility includes six icepads, a swimming pool named for local Olympian Anne Ottenbrite, six tennis courts, five ball diamonds, three batting cages, a skatepark, a soccer pitch, The Sports Garden Cafe restaurant and the Whitby Sports Hall of Fame. Whitby also developed the McKinney Sports complex which boasts three ice pads, two tennis courts and a skatepark, and Luther Vipond Arena in Brooklin, with one ice pad. These three sport complexes hold many sporting events.
In 2008, the OJHL relocated a team to Whitby to play out of the Iroquois Complex, known as the Whitby Fury.
Aaron Milton (born 1992), Canadian football player
James Neal, NHL hockey player, currently an Unrestricted Free Agent.
Joe Nieuwendyk, former NHL hockey player, Stanley Cup winner, Olympic Gold Medalist and former member of Team Canada, Hockey Hall of Fame Inductee (2011)
May Irwin, businesswoman, pioneer film actress, singer and star of vaudeville, participant in first screen kiss in cinematic history in Thomas Edison's 1896 film The Kiss'
K-os, rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer
^Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (2021-10-27). "Census Profile, 2016 Census". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Archived from the original on 2023-02-06. Retrieved 2023-01-14.
^Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (2015-11-27). "NHS Profile". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Archived from the original on 2023-01-14. Retrieved 2023-01-14.
^Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (2019-08-20). "2006 Community Profiles". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Archived from the original on 2023-02-08. Retrieved 2023-01-14.
^Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (2019-07-02). "2001 Community Profiles". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Archived from the original on 2023-08-29. Retrieved 2023-01-14.
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